


Icarus is Falling

by forgettableusername



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Alternate Universe - Voldemort Wins, Alternate Universe - Wings, Angst, Canon Divergence - Post-Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Character Death, Death Eater Draco Malfoy, Eventual Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy, Eventual Romance, F/M, Harry Potter Dies, Mystery, Possible Demon, Post-Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-05
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-18 07:33:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29854683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/forgettableusername/pseuds/forgettableusername
Summary: His words were followed by glass shattering, sparks flying, screams, curses, and hexes. She knew the day would come eventually, but nothing could have prepared her for what would be his final words.“What the fuck is that thing?”Then the blue light went out. As though the wispy glow had never greeted her at all.
Relationships: Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy, Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley, Pansy Parkinson/Blaise Zabini, Seamus Finnigan/Dean Thomas
Kudos: 8





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Previously named "The Depth."
> 
> I have decided that I will not update this story FREQUENTLY and instead opt for longer chapters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> previously named "the depth"

August 16th, 1998

It had been a dramatically rainy on the day that The Holy Ones had invaded.

She had always waited for that damn day to come. The moment she would see the Jack Russell come in through the window with the sound of his voice.

“They’re here.”

His voice had been so rushed. She had never heard him sound so afraid in her life.

His words were followed by glass shattering, sparks flying, screams, curses, and hexes. She knew the day would come eventually, but nothing could have prepared her for what would be his final words.

“What the fuck is that thing?”

Then the blue light went out. As though the wispy glow had never greeted her at all.

Hermione had watched the memory so many times she could tell you any little detail. The number of water droplets on the window, the exact tone Ginny had screamed in as she collapsed to the floor, the dents in the wooden floors that they had once danced on.


	2. Chapter 2

May 2nd, 1998

Dumbledore always knew Harry would have to die.

When Hagrid brought back Harry’s unrecognizable body, or what was left of it. Professor McGonagall had grabbed Ron and Hermione, and they fled from the Hogwarts grounds.

Ron had protested, screaming that it was his right to fight, that he owed it to Harry, to his brother Fred, to everyone who had fallen at the Dark Lord’s hand.

Hermione had expected Professor McGonagall to demand respect, but she just looked so tired, hollow.

“Recast these wards at the top of every hour. You mustn’t stop for anything.” The older woman spoke slipping parchment into Hermione’s shaking hands.

She brought her fingers to Hermione’s head.

“Only your God can help us now.”

As she disappeared from the room, Hermione didn’t feel it was appropriate to mention she did not believe in a muggle God. Harry’s death was the last bit of proof she needed.

Ron was still yelling, shouting at Hermione as she wandered the house. Its wooden floor creaked under each and every step she took. She ran her fingers along the walls, letting the pads touch old nails that remained from where photos once hung. 

The sky was impossibly grey, and it seemed as though there was no working electricity in the home. It relied on the sunlight that the day could not present.

She walked down the staircase and found herself in a living room where nothing appeared to match, like it was put together with not a single aesthetic in mind.

Hermione stood in the kitchen, its checkered floors underneath her feet. A pale and worn yellow fridge proved that electricity did run in the house, but no lights, not a single one in any of the five bedrooms.

There was a marvelous garden in front of the house. Flowers, muggle flowers, blossomed along the exterior of the home. She walked back up the staircase to find Ron sobbing.

He had lost two brothers.

She wanted to comfort him, but she could not move. Not a single sound could be made. She brushed her hand along his shoulder and stood in the hall separating the rooms, looking out a large window. Below was a different garden, vegetables grew up from the ground, reaching up towards the unforgiving sky. 

A chicken coup was just outside the white fence, trapping the plants inside.

Hermione was just realizing what this place was when the crackle of apparition and screaming began.

“Who’s there?! Please! Please! Don’t come any closer!”

Ginny’s shrieks filled the house, nearly rattling it from its original foundation.

It was more than a safe house, a prison, covered in flowers.

“What did they do to you?!” 

Ron was shouting as he cupped Ginny’s face.

Hermione turned around. She should have been horrified. She should have been screaming too. The beautiful eyes of her friend had been torn from her face.

Ginny’s hands were frantic, rushing them through Ron’s hair just trying to get a grasp of something, just trying to see.

Ron called out different wandless spells, but it was fruitless, this was unfixable by any magic. Poor Ginny couldn’t even cry, just let out confused screams that were surely tearing her larynx. Hermione could only stare, rooted to the spot.

“Hermione do something!”

There were enough tears covering his cheeks for the both of them as he pulled his sister’s disfigured face close to him. Her chin resting in his neck as he rocked her back and forth, anything to soothe, anything to calm.

She was inconsolable.

Hermione had been motionless for so long, she hadn’t even registered when Luna had arrived.

“You need to rid yourself of the blood, Ron.”

She had pried him away from his broken sister, ensuring he needed to shower. Luna’s soft tone was convincing as Ron tore into the nearest bedroom, wanting to cleanse himself as soon as possible to return to his sibling. 

“There, there,” Luna coddled, pulling Ginny close.

Hermione couldn’t bear it, she just couldn’t.

She took a hold of the banister, gripping tightly as she descended back down the stairs. She opened the door and stepped outside, away from the screams and the chaos.

The white fence had an opening with an entry gate that was left ajar.

Her feet took her past the garden.

There was a hill that led down into a forest, to the right of the home was a shallow beach and to the left was a field. Somehow, everything seemed endless in all directions.

But Hermione could feel it, the pulsing of a barrier, the barrier that would keep them inside, keeping them trapped.

Hermione let her body collapse in the field, feeling the stillness, the cool.

She had to go back, she knew she hadn’t been outside any more than an hour, but the fear of being the reason the barrier goes down was enough for her to drag her body back towards the outline of the cottage. 

Hermione knew the house was more full than the way she had left it before. When she pushed the door open, she was greeted with an extraordinarily pale Seamus and a comforting Dean who seemed as though he was ignoring the fact that he too was coming undone at the seams.

Seamus was clutching Dean’s arms, as Dean steadied him. It took Hermione a moment to register was Seamus was repeating and what Dean was whispering.

“Her eyes. Her eyes. Her eyes.” Seamus sounded like a broken clock that kept announcing the top of the hour.

“Look at me. You can see me though, right? You can see me?”

Hermione wobbled at the knees, ignoring Dean’s helpless look at her as she darted to the kitchen where she proceeded to vomit into the sink. She stared at the bile, not even remembering the last time she ate. 

“Hermione?”

She wished people would stop saying her name like that. Like they were trying to test her emotional state, but could not say the useless words of, “Are you okay?”

Neville stood in the doorway, disheveled, but strong. Of everyone in the house, he appeared to seem the most intact. 

“I’ll do the barriers, yeah?”

Hermione cried.

It was the first sob as she flung her arms around Neville’s body. She felt bad as he shook under her weight but for just a moment, she felt steady as he held her upright.

May 5th, 1998

“The fuck are they doing here?!” Ron shouted as Professor McGonagall appeared with three more new house guests.

The house had experienced a few days of silence when Luna gave Ginny a sleeping potion and Seamus went mute. The silence almost had a ring to it, a low buzzing, a dull hum, unbearable.

Then there was a spark and everyone rushed to see McGonagall approaching the house with three of their schoolmates tucked behind her.

Hermione gripped Ron’s wrist but he still tried to tug forward.

“Traitors! Traitors! Every fucking one of you! He’s dead because of you!”

Hermione didn’t know what was worse, the words spewing from Ron’s mouth or the way they remained expressionless to every single thing he said. She would almost believe they were petrified, then Theodore Nott blinked. None of them would look at each other

“Dumbledore said-” Professor McGonagall began.

“I don’t give a fuck what Dumbledore said! Didn’t he reassure us that Hogwarts was the safest place for us? And where has that led us, better yet ask him? But you can’t, can you? Cause the bastard’s dead!” 

McGonagall didn’t have the strength to look hurt or horrified. 

“They were chosen, to be here. There’s nothing I can do, I am sealed by an unbreakable vow. Had I not gotten them here, I would have died, Mr. Weasley, as I am sure you can understand.”

No one spoke for a long time, hovering in the doorway of the home.

“Well, let them go,” McGonagall finally said gesturing a hand to the door.

Hermione pulled Ron back into the house. 

The group placed themselves in the makeshift living room, tension pushing, and pulling like the taffy at Honeydukes.

“Why were we chosen?” Blaise Zabini spoke suddenly as he shifted in the olive green loveseat.

McGonagall began to open her mouth as Pansy Parkinson laughed from where she lounged across Blaise’s lap, it was a cold and dry laugh, not an ounce of humor behind it.

“Isn’t it obvious?”

No one spoke.

“Has no one noticed Draco isn’t here? We are pawns, saved in order to bring him back from the dark side.” She gave a mock pout before rolling her eyes and tucking her head into Blaise’s shoulder.

“We are always pawns, for both sides, hm?” She murmured before going silent.

“I must admit, I do not know why each of you were chosen, but I can tell you this. There is no magic inside of this house. None of you have wands. Hermione has been instructed to uphold the barrier with wandless magic. The barrier runs a mile wide in all directions, you will not be able to cross it. As soon as you do, your magic will be traced.”

It did not take a genius to understand what McGonagall meant, if they leave the barrier, they will die. Her words sank in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i want to update this as frequently as possible, opting for shorter chapter but more frequent? i think that contradicts my last note. anyways, senior year has me by the throat so i have no update schedule for now.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i think i just need to accept that the chapter length and post schedule will be inconsistent !

July 25th, 1998

“Ron please, tell me what’s going on out there,” Hermione murmured in his ear.

It was the first night he had returned from his longest assignment. She was almost used to the cold sheets. His body so close to hers almost felt suffocating, the heat radiating off of him was scorching and all-consuming.

“You can’t ask me to do that, not when everyone else has to be left in the dark.”

It was magic. Of course, he had used it, but so much of it? She wondered if all wizards were like that, warm like candles when they are in use, but snuff out the light, and it’s so cold.

“I’m not everyone else,” Hermione tried to argue, reaching her hand out for his. He was facing the wall away from her, and at her movement, he shifted further.

“Think you’re better than Ginny?” His voice was harsh. Hermione could only sigh. This seemed to be his favorite card to play at the moment.

“Ron, that’s not fair.”

The assignments were tough, whatever they were. His body always seemed to be so weak when he returned to her and the house. The eyes she once loved were no longer full like they were before. It looked like people had taken too many sips of the clear blue he held, leaving only a few drops for her.

“Right,” he grumbled, trying to be softer. He knew he was being cold, he knew, he knew, he knew, but it was exhausting coming back with no answers, no prize, no award to show what he had faced.

“Please, give me something,” Hermione begged.

She sat up against the headboard, waiting for him to sit up and look at her too, but he never did.

“Anything could get you hurt.”

The same response she always got. That damn response always felt like a lie, a cop-out. She knew there was even more than he was letting on, but he was so easy to break that she feared that if she applied too much pressure he would snap. If he snapped, there was nowhere to run. The mile radius felt so small.

“Ron, I am trapped inside of this house, please. There’s nothing that could even hurt me.”

He scoffed in response to her words.

She had given up, rolling onto her side and readjusting herself away from him. Her eyes were focused on the wardrobe in the dark when he spoke. The words were clumsy, he had trouble getting them out.

“There’s something out there, it’s not him. It’s something else, it wipes out everything.”

Hermione knew that tone. Fear.

“A creature?” Hermione asked carefully.

“No,” Ron said quickly and strained.

“A person?”

“No.”

“Ron, I don’t-” Hermione began.

“Please, leave it be,” Ron said. She could sense his regret at mentioning it, but relief lurked underneath. He wasn’t as tense, as he turned over, draping a hand across her hips.

“Good night,” Hermione whispered but Ron didn’t respond.

May 5th, 1998

The teens stared at one another, each afraid of making the wrong move.

Dean cleared his throat.

“The rooms have similar magic to the room of requirement. It will always be a bedroom, I tested it. But it morphs to the bedroom you need. Me and Seamus’s room has a wardrobe with clothes that only suit us. I checked the fifth room while it was empty to see if it would shift to our needs. It does as well.”

Theodore Nott gave a blank stare.

“The rooms adapt to the user. There are ten of us, five bedrooms. The rest of you should decide how to divide into pairs unless the couches are cozy enough for you,” his attempt at a joke fell flat, not that there was no humor in it, but no one could laugh when someone sounded so tired.

Hermione pondered for a moment. When McGonagall had said, “There is no magic inside of this house.” What she meant was that they could not use any magic that did not already come with the house.

“Alright, me and Theodore then,” Neville spoke up.

Once again, Theodore Nott gave a blank stare, now directed at Neville.

“Well, Dean and Seamus, Luna and Ginny, Ron and Hermione, Pansy and Blaise, that leaves us, right?” Neville said, nodding to Theodore.

The boy made the slightest gesture that he understood before sinking into the pale blue sofa, looking like he wanted to disappear into it.

“The refrigerator doesn’t automatically restock, but there are vegetables from the garden.” 

Ron stared wide-eyed at Hermione, she had not spoken since she saw Harry’s body. His name had been the last thing to leave her lips.

“Neville and I were quite good in herbology, I am sure we can manage the garden. I can make a good soup.” Luna added, her voice sounding like a sleepy song.

Ron was nodding along, leaning back against the wooden chair he had placed himself in.

“I know how to hunt using muggle traps, surely the woods are deep enough. I can teach the boys how to hunt.” He added, earning a nod from Blaise.

Dean looked uncomfortable as he leaned forward, his voice dropping to a whisper.

“I’m not sure, Seamus is ready for that.”

The room went silent. Seamus had a glossy look in his eyes from the moment he saw Ginny’s state. He almost appeared catatonic, locked behind a door. 

“I can’t get him out of bed, and when he speaks it’s just the same words over and over, again. He’s in no state to go out just yet.”

Luna was acknowledging Dean’s words.

“Yes, I would say the same for Ginny. None of us have the skills to help her re-adapt, it will take her some time and oh-.”

The petite blond girl’s eyes welled up with tears.

“Oh, oh, she lost Harry.”

It was as if the temperature in the room dipped. Ron gripped the arms of the chair tightly, his skin so pale that the vessels looked like they were threatening to explode. Hermione froze, a chill running from her neck to her spine. Luna’s words hung in the air, they all lost Harry.

“What’s wrong with Ginny?” Pansy’s voice was quiet. It wasn’t taunting but not quite caring. Curious. Her question wasn’t unprecedented as Hermione realized there was no way Pansy could have known, but it was too deep of a cut to ask after discussing Harry’s death.

Ron stood up quickly and stormed upstairs. His short fuse was done for the day. His heavy footsteps sounded overhead as he opened a door and shut it, the lock clicking into place. Hermione could tell he was not in their bedroom.

“Blinded,” Dean answered in a voice just above a whisper.

“I’m not sure if you will see her, if Ron will ever let you three see her, but Seamus… hasn’t been right since he saw her.” The boy added, shaking his head.

Neville shook his head, leaning forward into his hands.

“I saw it you know. Scratched out to the bone, like her sight was nothing,” he shuddered before excusing himself from the living room. With a shaky body, he walked into the entry bathroom, retching as the wooden door shut behind him.

Theodore’s eyes traced Neville’s path, it was evident how afraid he was.

“I think tonight, we get some rest.”

Hermione spoke quietly before excusing herself from the scene.


End file.
